Safety means for cotton harvesters



Dec. 12, 1950 J. D. RUST SAFETY MEANS FOR COTTON HARVESTERS Original Filed April 18, 1944 Patented Dec. 12,A 1950 John D. Rust, Memphis, Tenn.

Original application April 18, 1944, Serial No. 531,632. Divided and this application May 12, 1947, Serial No. 747,356

4 Claims.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in spindle type cotton picking machines in general, and in particular to machines of the character disclosed in Letters Patent No. 1,894,198, issued January 10, 1933, No. Re. 19,411, reissued January 1, 1935, No. 2,085,046, issued June 29, 1937, and No. 2,200,303, issued May 14, 1940.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide safety means for automatically protecting the machine against injury in cases of abnormal harvesting conditions, said means to include in combination with the doiing mechanism and the spindles as they proceed toward the doffer, a means for automatically stopping the machine in the event of any clogging of the delivery system.

Other objects will in part be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

To the attainment of the aforesaid objects and ends the invention further resides in those novel details of construction, combination and arrangement of parts, all of which will be rst described in the following detailed description, and then be pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a cotton picking unit embodying my present invention, parts being broken away and other parts being shown in section.

Fig. 2 is a detail perspective view of the wall plate forming a part of a circuit closing device.

Fig. 3 is a schematic side elevation of a, selfpropelled machine embodying the invention.

In the drawings, like numerals of reference indicate like parts in all the figures, beginning with Fig. l the numeral I represents the main frame of the machine, 2 the driving shaft, and 3 the driven shaft of the spindle-carrying slat belt.

The shafts 2 and 3 carry the sprocket wheels 4 about which the chains 5 pass. The chains 5 carry the slats 6 in which the spindles 1 are rotatably mounted. All of the foregoing may be of the usual construction as these parts, per se, do not comprise a part of the present invention, nor does the front guard comb device 8 for the stalk guards 9 constitute a part of the present invention, the guard comb 8 being present to prevent cotton being drawn over the front end of the stalk guards 9 between the guards 9 and the chains and slats.

On the curved bar I of the inner frame I0, II of the machine is a bridge member I2 which forms, with the bar I0, a slot into which one end 2 of a floating bar I3 projects. The other end of the bar I3 is spring loaded as at 41. The bar I3 carries a stub shaft I4 on which is mounted a pair of connected pulleys I5 and I6. A belt I8 passes about the pulley I6 and about a pulley I1 on the shaft 2, while a belt I9 passes about the pulley I5 and a pulley 20 o n the doffer shaft 25. The doffer saws 2 I are carried in suitably spaced relation by the shaft 25 and the teeth 2|x of the saws project between stripper bars 22 secured to an upright support 23 fixed to the frame of the machine. Thel picking spindle 1 in their travel pass between the saws and the bars 22 in a manner similar to that disclosed in my Patent No. 2,200,303 aforesaid. y

Referring now to the tiltable wall plate 21, a detail of which is shown in Fig. 2, a pin 26 is carried by and projects upwardly from the frame bottom cross bar Ia to receive a tubular bearing 29 that is welded or otherwise suitably secured to the lower end of the wall plate 21. The plate 21 extends from adjacent the doffer to the throat 38 of the suction duct 39 and has a wing 30 that projects into that throat and a flange 3| that lies outside but along the throat vertically. The wing 3D and the ange 3| serve as stops for the plate. The plate 21 is bent back upon itself as at 28 for a purpose presently made clear. The upper edge of the plate 21 is notched as at 32 to receive the hook end of an arm 35 that is secured to the outer end of a spring arm 34. The arm 34 is xed at its other end to a bracket 33 secured to the frame bar Ib. The'arm 34 is one element of a circuit closer, the other element of which is an insulated xed contact 31 suitably mounted on a frame bar Ib.

In Fig. 3 is schematically shown a tractor whose frame 5I carries the usual power plant 50 having a magneto 49. The arrangement of Fig. 3 is like that shown in my Patent No. 2,073,653 aforesaid. In Figs. 1 and 3, M designates the cotton picking machine. The magneto 49 is connected by a wire 46 to contact 31, the -return being via the frames of the machines.

In the event that vines, limbs, or anything obstructs the passage of the cotton through the suction pipe, then the cotton being stripped from the spindles would rapidly fill up the space between the stripper comb and the portion 28 of the movable wall 21. The spindles would crowd the cotton against the element 28 and cause the Wall 21 to lean away from the spindles and close the circuit, thereby grounding the magneto and stopping the machine vso as to avoid damage and to enable it to be cleaned quickly. As the accumulated cotton forces wail 21 away from the spindles by the pressure of the cotton against` the wall portion `2l the arm 25 will be pulled and the spring arm bent against contact 31 to close the circuit. By lifting the hook 36 and consequently releasing the wall 21, the wall may be lifted out of themachine, thereby giving room for access to the piled up cotton without the necessity of unbolting the parts.

This application is a'division of my application Serial No. 531,632, tiled April`18, 1944, now Patent No. 2,458,531.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, it is thought the construction, operation and advantages of my invention will be clear to those skilled in the art. 1

What I claim is:

1. In a cotton picking machine having a plurality of rotating cotton gathering spindles, means for removing the cotton from the spindles including a stripping comb: the improvement which includes a iixed circuit closing element; a yielding circuit closing element located adjacent the comb and constituting one wall of a cotton discharge passage, which yielding circuit closingelement is operated by the pressure of an abnormal accumulation of cotton between the said one wall and the comb.

2. In a cotton picking machine wherein are provided sets of rotating cotton gathering spindles, a set of stripping bars between which the spindles are drawn to remove the cotton from the spindles, a rotary doifer which includes circularly arranged sets of teeth on a rotating body, the teeth projecting between the stripping bars and lying in planes above the spindles: the improvement which includes walls forming a passageway into `which the dofler throws the cotton, said passageway having one of its walls spaced from the stripping bars to constitute therewith a throat, and a circuit closing means operatable by the tilting of said last named wall under excess pressure of cotton against the outside of the wall, and an electric circuit including said circuit closing means.

3. In a cotton picking machine wherein are 4 provided sets of rotating cotton gathering spindles, al set of stripping bars between which the spindles are drawn to remove the cotton from the spindles, a rotary doier which includes oircularly arranged sets of teeth on a rotating body, the teeth projecting between the stripping bars and lying in planes above the spindles: the improvement which includes walls forming a passageway into which the doft'er throws the cotton, said passageway having one of its walls spaced from the stripping bars to constitute therewith a throat, and a circuit closing means operatable by the tilting of said last named wall under excess pressure of cotton against the outside of the wall, and an electric circuit including said circuit closing means, said wall having a stop to limit its tilting outwardly, said circuit closer including a springy contact arm connected to said wall for drawing the wall outwardly against said stop when the wall is free of the excessive pressure which would tend to tilt the wall inwardly.

4. In a cotton picking machine having a plurality of cotton gathering spindles and a stripping comb: the improvement which includes a xed circuit closing element, walls forming a cotton discharge passage, one of said walls being yieldable and carrying a second circuit closing element, said yieldable wall being located adjacent the entrant end of said comb and being operable by the pressure of an excessive amount of cotton between the stripping comb and the adjacent portion of said yieldable wall, and an electric circuit containing said circuit closing elements.

JOHN D. RUST.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

